Quote:
Originally Posted by oldschoolgm
So I guess my question is, and why I was wondering if there was a map showing this offensive, if the 5th Div was the spearhead how did they get pushed so far south while everyone else stayed to the north, and what path did the 8th Div follow to get so far into the interior?
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We ran around and around on this in a thread or two last summer, IIRC. The major consensus was that the Germans weren't supporting this one too thoroughly before it started, and as soon as things got rough, they backed out and left XI US Corps out there. Possibly, they blew some bridges over the lower Oder to cover their tracks. The sudden appearance of the 4th Guards Tank Army was a terrible shock.
My contention was that the whole 2000 offensive may have been inspired by the ambitions of Polish exiles, who declared that the Poles wouldn't fight for the Soviets anymore and would defect
en masse if the Americans would give them a big enough show of force. The easy success of the initial push reinforced this conclusion, and the XI US Corps commander (I suggested his chief of staff was of Polish ancestry, perhaps with connections to the Polish Free Congress) shoved as hard as he could in what appeared to be the war-winning move. The 5th MD went off on an attempt to seize Lodz (which included the cover for the DIA's Reset operation), and the 8th MD went further east, in pursuit of rumors of similar Lithuanian defections. Some units did defect, Soviet and Polish, and may have been trying to get to positions to help the push.
When the 4th GTA blasted the 5th Division and some Polish units rallied to fight back at the Germans, it all fell apart. The German III Corps and/or Third Army commanders felt it was some kind of trap, and acted to keep their own forces and territory from falling into it. If there were rumors of the "Red Bear" Chelkov behind it, that could certainly have reinforced it.
Was the whole operation a KGB feint to draw out NATO's reserves? Was it an honest effort by the Polish Free Congress? If so, was it rolled up at the last minute by the KGB/GRU, or were they just overly optimistic about generals' willingness to change sides? Was it the presence of the Germans behind the Americans that caused some Polish generals to change their minds about defecting?
In short, I project a "Bridge Too Far" air about the whole operation. A grand, war-winning gamble if it worked, but built on what turned out to be a foundation of sand.